Air India to launch nonstop flight between Delhi, Los Angeles from September

NEW DELHI:. Air India is planning to launch a nonstop flight from New Delhi to Los Angeles from September. The move following a huge success of its San Francisco nonstop with people lapping up this direct service to California. The airline is also planning to commence flights to Africa after a gap of several years.

Ashwani Lohani, Charman, Air India, said in a Facebook post said on May 9, that AI plans to launch flights to Washington from July 7 ; Stockholm from August 15 and Los Angeles from September 1, to be followed by Tel Aviv, Dallas and Nairobi sometime later this year .

Apart from Washington, the other dates are tentative from when AI plans to start these flights. A senior airline official said: "There is huge demand for travel between India and the West Coast of US. We are looking at thrice a week nonstop service between Delhi and Los Angeles, to begin with. The plan for Stockholm is of a similar frequency and nonstop Washington service will also start as three times a week. Our nonstop product is being increasingly chosen by flyers as they want to travel direct and not one or two stops."

AI already has a daily flight on three US routes — Mumbai-Newark; Delhi-New York and Delhi-Chicago — apart from six times a week on Delhi-San Francisco sector. Apart from Washington, LA and Dallas, it is learnt to be looking at several other American destinations. It also has a one-stop flight on the Ahmedabad-London-New York route.

s has withdrawn its service to the "Big Apple". Apart from AI and Jet, all other airlines offering flights on India-US route are one or two stops through their hubs in Gulf, Europe, Southeast Asia and Canada.

The Maharaja is eyeing the US market in a big way through its nonstop product. To bring down due cost, it now flies to the West Cast over the Pacific (over Japan) and returns to India over the Atlantic to avoid headwind and get the benefit of tail winds.